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18th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Amsterdam 1996
6.1.6: Heart-rate Variability - Methods and Applications

THE IJSE OF THORACIC-ABDOMINAL TRANSFER FUNCTION IN

EXTRACTING FETAL ELECTROCARDIOGRAM

Liang-Yu Shyu, Chen-Feng Huang, Yen-Sung Wu, Wei-Chih Hu and Kuan-Chong Chao*

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Chung Li, 32023, Taiwan
*Division of Gynecology, Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, 11217, Taiwan
'
e-mail : Ishyu@medical.be.cycu.edu.tw

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Abstract The technique that uses the thoracic abdominal
transfer function for fetal electrocardiogram (FECG)
extraction is proposed and tested. Signals obtained hy means
of curfacr electrodes during non-invasive FECG monitoring
are contaminated hy maternal electrocardiogram (MECG).
The proposed method calculates the transfer function between
thoracic and abdominal MECG. Upon acquiring this
transfer function, the abdominal MECG can be estimated
using simultaneously recorded thoracic MECG for
cancellation. Both simulated and real signals were used to
evaluate thc performance of this method. It is concluded
that this method provides good to excellent results depend on
the quality of incoming signals.
Introduction
Tlic non-invasive fetal electrocardiogram (FECG)
nronitoring by means of abdominal surface electrodes
provides a valuable information about lhe cardiac electrical
activity of fetus. It has bcen illustratcd that FECG can
inonitor {he abnormality in arrhythmia and assess the fetal
acidosis. ln addition, the central nervous system function
GIII be euluated by the analysis of fetal heart rate variability
11 I. However, the low signal-to-noise ratio and the
contaniiilation of maternal electrocardiogram (MECG) and
clcctrotuyography introduce an unique challenges in signal
processing.
The tecliiiique developed by Reichert et. al., [2] a linear
coinbiiiatioii of thoracic MECG was used in the estimation
of abdominal MECG. Due to the lack of coincidence in
phase and amplitudc. this method i s fraught with problem.
Aunong scvcral other signal processing techniques proposed
to extract FECG from the contaminated signal, the
correlation nnalysis has been the most successful and widely
used niethod. However. the amplitude as well as the shape
of ECG arc niodulatcd by the respiratory activity. By
subtracting an averaged MECG from the incoming signal,
i n spite of perfectly aligned. this method results in low
Thls work is supported by National Science Committee
of ROC under the grand of NSC85-2213-E-033-023.
frequency residual signal that can be as large ds FECG [3]
To ovcrcome dcficicncics and improvc thc pcrformaiicc of
current methods. we propose a new signal processing
technique. specifically the thoracic-abdominal trmsfcr
function, to cstiniatc the MECG 111 the contaminated signal
Method
Thoracic-abdominal transfer function
Although the shape and amplitude of the thoracic and
abdominal MECGs are different, they are originated from
the same source, the maternal heart. Causes of these
differences are distinct electric pathways from the heart to
electrode leads. It is impossible to obtain the characteristic
of these pathways directly. Thc relationship bctwccn thcsc
pathways, however. can be estimated.
In time domain, the thoracic and abdominal MECCs can
be represented as
i ; ( r ) = h,(f)*,?(t)
(1)
& ( I )= h , ( t ) * S ( f )
where * denotes the operation of convolution. In addition.
s(t), ft(t), fa(t), ht(t) and ha(t) are the electric activity in the
heart, the thoracic MECG. the abdominal MECG. and
transient responses of electric pathway from the heart to
thorax and abdomen, respectively. In frequency donlain.
Equation 1 can be rewritten as
F; ( J M: ) = Z?, ( .jw ). S ( ,;w)
(2)
e, ( .;w) Ha( ./ w ). S' ( ./U,, 1
where Fa(jw) and Ft(jw) are the Fourier transformed
abdominal and thoracic MECGs, respectively. The
thoracic-abdominal transfer function, Hta(jw). is defined as
F,(I'M:)
s'( I M )
Bv rearranging equation 3. the spectrurii of abdoini nal
MECG can be calculated as
Fa ( / w 1 = N ,( / w ) Ff( IM.' ) (4)

0-7803-3811-1/97/$10.00 OIEEE 1644

 18th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Amsterdam 1996
6.1.6: Heart-rate Variability - Methods and Applications
Thus. the abdominal h4ECG can be obtained from thoracic-
abdominal transfer function and thoracic MECG. Since
H,,[jw) includes both magnitude and phase information, the
problcm of coincidence in Reichcrt’s nicthod is eliminatcd.
The estimated abdominal MECG is then subtracted from the
inconling signal for FECG extraction.
I n order to obtain better spectrum representation, ensemble
averaged MECG‘s were used in the calculation of thoracic
abdominal transfer function. At high frequencies, however,
this transfer fiinction becomes the ratio of noises. Thus, a
Hamming window was applied to suppress the high
rrcquency noise above 150 Hz.
Subject and Data acquisition
Five subjects at their late pregnancy ( 38.2 f 1.9 weeks)
were recruited for this studv. Two ECG electrodes. in
addition to the three Lead I1 electrodes, were placed at the
lower abdomen for abdominal signal acquisition. Both
thoracic and abdominal signals were amplified
simultaneouslv by a custom made two channels ECG system
\\,ith bandwidths of 150Hz. Signals were digitized at a
sampling rate of 1000Hz and stored in an IBM cotnparable
computer for off-line processing.
Result
For the purpose of evaluation, simulated FECGs were
d d c d to thc rccorded abdoin~nal ECG signal Both
,~niplitiideand time of occurring of these simulated FECGs
,ire knoit B priori
The simulation results are depicted in figure 1 The
proposcd method successfiilly estimates the abdominal
signal The artificial FECG can be clearly identified i n
thc cutracled signal
P i p r e I The result of simulation. where trace A, B, C,
and D arc thc artificial abdominal signal, thc cstiniatcd
ntaterual ECG. the extracted signal, and the sitnulated
FECG. respectively
A typical abdominal signal and processed outputs are
illustrated in figure 2. Due to the low amplitude of
incoming signal, high amplification gain was used on all
recording rcsults i n subcutaiicous amount of high frequency
wise. Nevertheless, the ability of the proposed technique
to accurately estimate the material ECG is clearly
demonstrated.
1645
Notes thdt there is no low frequency residual signal in the
extracted FECG signal during the period when inaternal
QRS complexes occur [n addition the signal-to-noise
ratio IS maintained
m IT1
c
Pipre 2 The result of FECG extraction, where trace A,
B, and C are the abdominal signal, the estimated
maternal ECG and the extracted FECG, respectivelv
Additionally, m and f represent the maternal and fetal
ECG, respectively
Discussion
To estimate the maternal ECG continuously, fiftj percent
over-lapping triangle windows were used in the calculation
of spectra. This results in twice amount of computational
time. Thus, off-line processing has to be performed. For
potential clinical usage. an alternating real-time approach
using lhe same principle has to be found in the future.
Additionally. as it is illustrated in the result section. the
proposed method does not atteiiuate high frequency noises.
The result of extraction depends heavily on the qualie of
incoming signal.
Conclusion
The proposed thoracic-abdominal transfer hnction shows
great potential in FECG extraction. The large amount of
computational time it required, however, limits the current
approach to off-line processing. Both dedicated hardware
and finitc inipulsc rcsponsc digital filtering are under
investigating to achieve rcal-time FECG extraction.
References
I. Abhoud S and Dadeh D, “Power spectrum analysis of fetal
heart rate variability using the abdominal inatemal
electrocardiogram,”J.Biomed. Eng. Vol. 12; 161-164, I Y90
2. Reichert TA, Longini RL; Growley JS, and Yu JM1“A
noiiiiivasive extraction of the fetal electrocardiogram,”
Compuf. Riomed. Res. IO. 1-7. 1977.
3. Abboud S, Alaluf A, Einav S. and Sadeh D, “Real-time
abdominal fetal ECG rtxording using a hardware correlutor,”
Comprir. B i d . A4ed.. Vol. 22. No. 5, 3 2 5 - 3 3 5 , 1992.